Reluctant Friendship
by Klutzygirl33
Summary: Set post "Letharia Vulpina". Derek saving Chris sent them down the path of reluctant friendship.


**I don't own Teen Wolf and never will. No copyright infringement intended.**

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After Derek saved Chris from the bomb, the two started on a path to reluctant friendship. Chris didn't understand why Derek had saved him after his sister murdered the Hale family, but he was grateful for his actions. He was also thrilled that Allison hadn't been orphaned – he wasn't sure she'd be able to handle it after all she went through following Victoria's death. And so Chris started seeing Derek in a different light.

Being locked up in a jail cell for a murder he didn't commit was not Chris' idea of a good time, but luckily he and Derek were cleared rather quickly. They didn't see each other for another three days – after Stiles disappeared again. The poison had stopped working after a certain point, and the nogistune was angrier than ever after that. They all wanted the nogistune out of Stiles, preferably without hurting the teenager it was occupying, but it wasn't exactly easy to do so. "So are you going to hurt him or no?" Derek wanted to get through this with Stiles in one piece. Mentally, he was sure it wasn't going to be an easy time.

Chris shook his head. "I'm sick of all of this. I am going to try to make sure Stiles survives this. You have my promise, Hale."

Derek gave a little smile, but that was his only reaction to Chris' words. "So are we becoming allies now?" He didn't know how he felt about that.

"It's not out of the realm of possibility. Your back completely healed yet?" There had been a shitload of glass stuck in Derek's back, and Chris couldn't help but worry about him. Maybe because he still felt majorly responsible for Kate's actions.

"Yeah, I'm good now." Confused about why Chris seemed worried about him, Derek actually couldn't believe they were having this conversation. What had led them down to this path to possibly becoming friends? At least he understood their dynamic better when they were sworn enemies. He knew how to act around him then. Hell, just a few days ago, they had threatened to kill each other. The bomb going off at the station had changed a lot of things for everybody.

"Good. Keep it that way. Don't get killed out there, Hale."

"Same to you." Derek was going to do everything in his power to make sure that no one else in the pack died. He wouldn't admit it out loud, but he wasn't sure he could take any more loss. That was one of the main reasons he accepted Cora leaving – she was safer with others (him).

They smiled at each other and went to go help Scott, Allison, and Kira track down Stiles and finally end the nogistune's reign of terror. Still down for the count and slowly healing at the hospital, Isaac was reluctantly sitting this one out (there had been a lot of loud protests, but Melissa refused to let him go anywhere).

It took several hours – after Deaton poisoned the fox yet again – to get Stiles back, but when it was all over (and everyone was pretending not to cry at John and Stiles' reunion), they collapsed in exhaustion at Melissa and Scott's house. Nobody felt like going anywhere, so they stayed (nobody minded).

Chris groaned. "I think I'm way too old for this."

Derek snorted. "Are you quoting Lethal Weapon now?"

"Maybe," was Chris' answer. He hurt everywhere, and although he wasn't bruised, he had a feeling those were coming and there'd probably be a lot of them.

"Are you two talking to each other civilly now?" Allison was surprised and confused.

"It's a thing that happened."

"I didn't tell you?" A lot had happened so Chris wasn't shocked he had forgotten to tell her.

"What is it?" She stared at them and waited expectantly for their explanation.

"I protected your dad from the blast at the police station. That's pretty much it." Derek knew he was oversimplifying it, but he was too tired to care about that right now.

"He got hurt pretty badly, actually. And thank you again for that, by the way." Chris couldn't remember if he had thanked him before. It had been an emotionally draining few weeks.

"Wow. I want to thank you, too." Allison was grateful that she still had her father thanks to Derek, but she still hadn't forgiven him for her mother's death. That probably wouldn't happen for a long time, if ever.

Three days later, Chris and Derek actually went out to lunch together to talk (Derek protested, but gave in when Chris offered to pay) more about what had happened. There wasn't much to say that hadn't already been said, but they had to try.

"I can never make up for what my sister did, but I would like to say that what happened to you never should have happened. You were a kid, Derek, and to lose your entire family is devastating and horrifying. And I forgive you for your part in Victoria's death. I understand that you were only trying to save Scott." It had taken a long time to reach that conclusion, and it had been a bitter pill to swallow.

"That means a lot, actually. I don't regret biting Victoria, but I do regret that it led to Allison losing her mother." Derek wanted to make sure that nobody lost someone close to them again. There had definitely been way too much death lately, and he was sick and tired of it. He figured Chris felt the same way.

"We've all fucked this up somewhere along the line," Chris acknowledged. Was he actually becoming friends with a werewolf?

Was Derek actually becoming friends with a hunter? Sure seemed like it. He didn't know how to feel about that at all. "So clean slate from now on or what?"

"That can work." He shook Derek's hand, and then they ordered their food. They ate their lunch in a comfortable silence.

Neither Chris nor Derek had ever expected this to happen, but they were okay with it. That day at the police station had been a day that changed the lives of the Beacon Hills pack in a multitude of ways, some of which weren't known yet.


End file.
